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Fortune magazine has named Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk as its Businessperson of the Year. But what's more surprising is a well-reasoned comparison of Musk to the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

The article refers to their "shared genius."

It's not just that Musk and Jobs are "serial disrupters," among those who think differently and can create huge change within an otherwise relatively stale industry. It's that they think big.

They don't just figure out how to develop single products, but mull how those products will fit into a larger "ecosystem." It's about an entire system. "Most innovation is like a new melody. For Jobs and Musk it's the whole symphony," writes Chris Anderson in the story.

In fact, he asserts Musk is having a bigger impact on the world than Jobs ever did. SpaceX has found a way to slash the cost of rocket launches and Tesla could become the first successful large-scale automotive startup in decades.

While Musk is leading the electric car revolution, his brilliance isn't just about giant things, but the nuances -- such as something as simple as a door handle.

Musk really wanted outside door handles on the Model S that sensed a driver walking up to the car and extended out. It was a devilishly hard engineering problem, since they handles need to work thousands of times in all kinds of weather. Engineers didn't want to do it, but Musk push and they got it done.

Anderson quotes Musk as saying, "There were numerous conversations where I had pushback from the engineers. And it's not like they were saying, 'Oh, this is a challenge.' More like, 'This is the stupidest thing ever.' But we did it in the end, and yes, I think it's cool -- one of the car's signature features."